1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an apparatus for producing rectangular furniture boards, which are sawn from an initial board and onto which an edge is glued.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to produce such furniture boards, production centres are known which comprise a board saw, an edge gluing machine and a CNC drilling machine. The plate saw cuts furniture boards from a large-format initial board in accordance with a preprogrammed cutting plan. After the job of the plate saw has been completed, a bar code, which contains information, is applied to the respective furniture boards.
After being cut to size by the board saw, the furniture boards are passed on by an operator, in an uncoordinated manner and generally manually, to the edge gluing machine, which is loaded manually.
In the edge gluing machine, the edges of the workpieces exposed by the dividing cut in the board saw are provided with an appropriate edge and these edges are finally machined. As a rule, all four sides are provided with edges, which are to some extent also different, so that it is necessary to pass through the edge gluing machine four times. In the worst case, therefore, the cut edges of all four sides have to be provided with appropriate bar codes. In the case of manual loading, this leads to complications and to a slowing of the sequence. Since the workpieces also have to be removed manually at the outlet of the edge gluing machine or transported back to the operator via a return system, a coordinated and automated sequence in the case of a plurality of different board sizes and edging materials is possible only with great difficulty. The known apparatus is therefore primarily suitable for machining parts which are as standard as possible. The finally edged parts are then stacked on suitable aids, such as pallets and the like. Some of these boards are then passed onto the CNC drilling machine, in which the boards are provided with holes. By means of reading bar codes on the workpiece, an appropriate program can be activated. However, inserting the workpieces into the CNC drilling machine and removing them is likewise carried out manually.
Furthermore, large systems for producing furniture boards are known, which likewise in principle have three machining machines, namely a board saw, an edge gluing machine and a CNC drilling machine with a high efficiency. The board saw saws workpieces of equal size from large-format initial boards, the said workpieces then being supplied via a transfer device to a double-sided edge gluing machine, which in each case carries out two edging operations in one pass. Because of the efficient processing apparatuses, it is possible to operate with a high passage speed. The processing apparatuses are set up on line by means of appropriate programmes or directly by an operator. This is tolerable in the case of large mass production. However, in the case of small batch sizes, large systems are not profitable.
In addition to the extremely high space requirement and the investment costs, a high outlay on set-up when changing over to other jobs primarily has a negative effect. Furthermore, automation that is flexible and provided with logistic intelligence is not provided, since these systems are aimed at large mass production from the start.
The invention is based on the object of providing a flexible apparatus for producing rectangular furniture boards with a glued-on edge whose operation can be automated in a straightforward manner.
This object is achieved by an apparatus having the features of claim 1. Advantageous embodiments of the apparatus according to the invention form the subject matter of claims 2 to 5.
The apparatus according to the invention offers the possibility of automating the operating sequence thoroughly. This encompasses the planning, the design, the job processing, the machine control, the operating sequence optimization, the data processing for recalculation and capacity calculations. By means of automatic sequence optimization within the apparatus, a very flexible production facility is achieved. Only a minimum number staff is required. In addition, the space required for the machining and the transport within the apparatus is low.
Particular flexibility is achieved by the transverse gluing device for gluing on and machining one of the transverse edges having a plurality of machining stations which are arranged one after another in the passage direction and can be fed in independently of one another transversely with respect to the passage direction of the final board. The individual machining stations are, for example, a joining station, a capping station, a milling station and a corner rounding station. The ability to feed them in independently makes it possible for a workpiece of a specific size to be machined in the joining station, for example, while another workpiece of a different size is being machined in the capping station.
The apparatus preferably has a control device, into which operating jobs for producing boards with a specific size and specific edges are entered. Stored in the control device is optimization software which, by using the operating jobs, controls the longitudinal sawing device, the longitudinal gluing device, the transverse sawing device and the transverse gluing device in such a way that the optimum machining performance is achieved with minimum consumption of material. A CNC drilling machine following the transverse gluing device can also be controlled by the control device.
Still greater flexibility is achieved if the longitudinal gluing device and the transverse gluing device each have a plurality of edge magazines with different edges, which are chosen by the control device as required. The longitudinal gluing device and the transverse gluing device can in each case have a plurality of gluing stations with different adhesives, which are likewise chosen by the control device as required.